Tuesday night's scrimmage proved costly for Cal: Tad Smith, a senior who was contending for the starting job at tight end, sustained a torn ACL and will miss the entire 2009 season.

Smith will have surgery to repair the injury, coach Jeff Tedfordsaid after Wednesday's practice. Tedford said Cal would petition the NCAA for a sixth season of eligibility if Smith wants to return; he used his redshirt season after arriving at Cal in 2005.

The loss of Smith leaves Anthony Miller, a sophomore from Mitty High in San Jose, as the likely starter in the season opener Sept. 5 against Maryland. Smith and Miller had been vying for the job.

"Tad is big and physical; he's really good at the point of attack," Tedford said. "But I think we're deep enough that we'll be fine. We still have four or five tight ends."

Two other players in the mix at tight end are Spencer Ladner, a towering redshirt freshman (6-foot-7, 253 pounds) who has recovered from a hamstring injury earlier in training camp, and Skylar Curran, a senior Tedford praised for "stepping up" in recent practices.

QB update: Tedford acknowledged the decision at quarterback is essentially between Kevin Riley and Brock Mansion. Redshirt freshman Beau Sweeney has taken few snaps with the first-team offense.

"It's fair to say Kevin and Brock are leading right now, mainly because of their experience," Tedford said. "Beau will be a really good player - we think he can win games for us - but the other guys are a little better at game management now."

Early tests: All it takes is a quick look at Cal's schedule to realize the Bears could set up a potentially great season - or fall into a deep hole - in the space of one month.

After opening with non-conference home games against Maryland and Eastern Washington, the Bears travel to Minnesota and open the Pac-10 season on the road against ever-dangerous Oregon. Then, the next week, Cal hosts USC at Memorial Stadium (Oct. 3).

The Bears have a bye Oct. 10, a chance to catch their breath.

"I can appreciate the challenges we have those first five games," Tedford said. "At that bye, we're going to sit back and evaluate what happened. We're going to find out our strengths and weaknesses."